THEATER
FOR THE NEW CITY’S DREAM UP FESTIVAL PRESENTS
“THE WRONG BOX” BY KIT GOLDSTEIN GRANT
Family rivalries give way to complete chaos when members bet on each
others’ survival in an energetic Victorian black comedy

WHERE AND WHEN:
September 1 to September 16.
Theater for the New City (Community Space Theater) 155 1st Avenue.
NYC premiere presented by Theater for the New City (Crystal Field, Artistic
Director) as part of the Dream Up Festival 2018.
9/1 5pm, 9/8 5pm, 9/9 5pm, 9/10 6:30pm, 9/15 5pm,
9/16 5pm
Tickets: $18. Box Office: (212) 254-1109, www.dreamupfestival.org
Running time: 150 min., including a 15-minute intermission. Critics
are invited to all performances.

NEW YORK, July 23 – “The Wrong Box,”
a musical by Kit Goldstein Grant (Book/Music/Lyrics), is based on the
Victorian black comedy novel of the same name by Robert Louis Stevenson
and Lloyd Osborne that is set in London and surrounding areas in the
late 19th century. It centers around a 'tontine,' a bizarre investment
scheme wherein a group of young men invest money in a fund and the last
man living takes it all. Theater for the New City’s Dream Up Festival
will present the New York City premiere of the work September 6 to September
14. Michael Chase Gosselin directs and choreographs.

Morris, a 40-year old orphan who was robbed by his uncle
of seven thousand eight hundred pounds when he was only a boy at school,
is desperate to win the tontine and thus right the wrongs that have
been done to him. His uncle Joseph is one of the last two members of
the tontine, so Morris is willing to go to any length to keep his uncle
alive long enough for him to win. Things go south for Morris, when they
are both involved in a train wreck and he finds a dead body which he
believes to be that of his uncle. Chaos ensues as Morris does whatever
it takes to keep up the charade that Uncle Joseph is still alive long
enough to win the tontine. From pillar to post, from packing-case to
piano, the hapless heirs scramble to keep up with the vanishing
cadaver in this musical adaptation of Stevenson's classic farce. The
score combines the Victorian with a touch of Kander and Ebb.

In a CD review of the score, Chronogram wrote, ?"If
you enjoy death humor and musical theater, look no further for a little
demented, first-class entertainment."

Kit Goldstein Grant (Book/Music/Lyrics) is a New York
City-based composer, lyricist and librettist. Her musicals have been
seen in South Africa (“The Nose”, Annex Theatre Productions)
and in New York at The Players Theatre (“Where Angels Fear to
Tread”, THML Theater), the Master Theater (“The Nose”),
the Midtown International Theater Festival (“The Nose”,
nominated for Best Musical), the Strawberry One-Act Festival (“The
Commuters”, Calendar Boys Productions, nominee Best Musical),
The Gallery Players (“The Giant Hoax”), the Emerging Artists
Theatre New Work Series, the Musical Theatre Factory, and the National
Opera Center (“The Wrong Box”). Five of her musicals for
young audiences have toured schools with the Schenectady Theatre for
Children, including “It’s Raining Tamales!” She has
studied at Juilliard and the Tony Award winning BMI Musical Theatre
Writing Workshop. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild. www.kitgoldstein.com

Michael Chase Gosselin (Director/Choreographer) directed
the off-Broadway piece “Money Talks” as well as the acclaimed,
long-running “Endangered! The Musical”. His other world
premiere productions include Kit Goldstein Grant’s “The
Nose” at the Master Theater and “The Most Miserable Christmas
Tree in Brooklyn”. He
produced and managed “Midnight at The Never Get” and LUDO's
“Broken Bride” at the New York Music Festival (NYMF) in
2016 and produced “Pope! An Epic Musical” (NYMF 2015). He
also serves as a General Partner of Visceral Entertainment, a theatrical
production and management company. In 2013, he co-produced and directed
a reading of Moby Dick: A Whale of a Tale for Cameron Mackintosh. He
was the Producing Artistic Director of Act Three Theatricals in Vermont
2006-2012. He is a proud member of SDC, the Stage Directors and Choreographers
Society. www.michaelchasegosselin.com

The ninth annual Dream Up Festival (www.dreamupfestival.org)
is being presented by Theater for the New City from August 26 to
September 16. An ultimate new work festival, it is dedicated to the
joy of discovering new authors and edgy, innovative performances. Audiences
savor the excitement, awe, passion, challenge and intrigue of new plays
from around the country and around the world.

The festival does not seek out traditional scripts that
are presented in a traditional way. It selects works that push new ideas
to the forefront, challenge audience expectations and make us question
our understanding of how art illuminates the world around us.

In addition to traditional plays, a unique and varied
selection of productions will again be offered, drawing upon a variety
of performance genres including musicals, puppetry and movement theater.
The Festival's founders, Crystal Field and Michael Scott-Price, feel
this is especially needed in our present time of declining donations
to the arts, grants not being awarded due to market conditions, and
arts funding cuts on almost every level across the country and abroad.